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Title: Role of Water in the Reversible Optoelectronic Degradation in Hybrid Perovskites at Low Pressure

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [4]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States). School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering and School of Molecular Sciences
  2. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States). School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials
  4. Federal Inst. of Technology, Lausanne (Switzerland). Inst. of Microengineering
  5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials and Advanced Photon Source
  6. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials; Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Computation Inst.
  7. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Nanoengineering
+ Show Author Affiliations

There is no doubt about the potential offered by the low-cost fabrication and high efficiency of hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells. However, the service lifetimes of these devices must be increased from months to years to capitalize on their potential. The archetypal hybrid perovskite for solar cells, methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3, abbreviated MAPI), readily degrades in ambient atmosphere under standard operating conditions. Understanding the origin and effects of this degradation can pave the way to better engineer photovoltaic devices and the perovskite material itself. Herein we present the effects of varying pressure on the electrical performance of MAPI solar cells. Solar cell parameters, especially open circuit voltage, are significantly affected by the total ambient pressure and present an unexpected reversible behavior upon pressure cycling. We complement photoluminescence studies as a function of ambient atmosphere and temperature with first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results suggest that the reversible intercalation of water in MAPI is a necessary component underlying this behavior.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE); Nano-Tera.CH (NTCH) Initiative; Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC02-05CH11231; 1144616; SI/501072-01; EEC-1041895
OSTI ID:
1432957
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 121, Issue 46
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

The Relationship between Chemical Flexibility and Nanoscale Charge Collection in Hybrid Halide Perovskites journal March 2018
Doping strategies for small molecule organic hole-transport materials: impacts on perovskite solar cell performance and stability journal January 2019
Water in hybrid perovskites: Bulk MAPbI 3 degradation via super-hydrous state journal April 2019

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77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
14 SOLAR ENERGY